Transformers: Parallels of the Universe
by Evey Vendetta
Summary: Set between the second and third movies. A civilian finds herself in the middle of the ongoing Cybertronian civil war. Armed with the knowledge of a long lost Cybertronian legend, can she and the Autobots solve its riddle before the Decepticons destroy the universe with it? How will her past transform her future and will she find a way into her favorite Autobot's Spark?Bumblebee/OC
1. Chapter 1: Parallels

**A/N** – Hello potential reader!

I've been doing some digging around for an action-packed Bumblebee/OC story and although I found some good ones, there's nothing like getting your own idea (freshly brewed from your brain!) turned into a story :)

This is my first Transformers fanfic, and I've put quite a lot of effort into this baby (meaning hours long of revising and rewriting) in order to get it right. However, since Murphy hates us all I'm pretty sure that no matter how many times I revise it, there will still be some grammatical and spelling mistakes.  
If you can point them out to me I'd be more than happy to correct them :)

Also, this is a work in progress so I'm looking for experienced beta readers. PM me if interested :)

P.S - Best viewed in 1/2 page width!

**Disclaimer**: anything you recognise is mine. Anything you don't belongs to me. If I owned the Autobots I'd be far, far away having my own adventure and hitting on Bumblebee ;)

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**Chapter 1 - Parallels**

_'Great. Yet another day wasted at work'_, I thought to myself as I opened the door to my small apartment. It wasn't much, but it was home. At least until I get my own house. Someday.  
Maybe after college because a job at Target just wasn't gonna cut it.  
I sighed. Getting out of the shower, I put a very comfy pair of pants and t-shirt on, then stood in front of the mirror to brush my wet hair.  
I wasn't anything special. I had brown eyes and brown hair, which had a slight auburn tint to it in the sun. It wasn't straight but not exactly wavy either. Just too damn average, too much like everyone else.  
Maybe I should get a freakishly short haircut, as my hair was already past the middle of my back. Brushing it became somewhat tedious and it was starting to annoy me.

I was exhausted, but watching a movie before going to bed sounded like a good idea. I decided to sit on my rather old, shabby TV couch (second hand of course, got a bargain price on Craig's List) and play whatever was in my DVD player. I wasn't gonna get picky. God knows it's been ages since I watched a proper movie. I pressed the play button on the remote.  
It was the first Transformers movie and I was relieved. I was a bit afraid it was going to be some romantic drama from my sappy days. I really didn't need any reminders from that period. I wasn't in the mood for that and I was perfectly happy to watch some action and explosions. Besides, I rather enjoyed watching a certain yellow Autobot.  
I didn't know all the lines by heart, but it was still very familiar to me as I watched it several times since its release in theaters. I was almost halfway through the movie when I finally gave way to sleep. I was simply too tired to stay awake.

It was already dark when I began to wake up. The movie must've ended a few hours ago. At first, I wasn't sure if I was awake or still sleeping. I felt the couch shaking but I kept still, thinking it was a minor earthquake. Such things weren't exactly rare in this earthquake prone area. I guess that's what woke me up. But then I heard something that definitely didn't add up to my earthquake assumption. I could swear it sounded like a giant's footsteps, but that didn't sound right. I must've been dreaming still.  
I finally opened my eyes. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the dark surroundings. The noise did not stop. I suppose a slight adrenaline rush was the reason behind the speed of which I suddenly started moving: I darted across the small living room towards the window and gasped.  
Looking outside the window, I stared at the most surreal sight I would probably ever see in my life:  
Real, walking and possibly breathing giant robots.

"Oh. My. God." I whispered.

Now, I wasn't the fainting type. I was the kind of person who went head first into what others deemed dangerous and possibly hazardous situations. Some would call it bravery; others would call it foolishness. I was pretty sure it was the latter.  
As I ran to my bedroom, grabbed whatever pair of jeans I could find first and got dressed, I considered the options: one, that I was having my first lucid dream. I read about it on the internet and I always thought it would be cool to have one.  
Two, that I was completely awake, and either giant robots were now part of reality or I was in some sort of parallel universe, which would involve a lot of quantum mechanics and some _very_ creative thinking on my part. I went with the sane, realistic option that made sense to me - the first one of course.  
Since I was dreaming, I decided to go a little bit over the edge and have some fun. Being in a dream meant I wouldn't get hurt, so why not play along?

I quickly grabbed my bag and keys from the table, locked the apartment door behind me and ran downstairs. The giant robots weren't very far. I broke into a sprint, passing blocks of buildings as I did and the closer I got to the scene the more I realized my dream had some _very_ familiar faces in it. Then it hit me.  
"Holy shit! _Autobots!_" I exclaimed breathlessly.  
And that wasn't all of it – a certain guy was running alongside them, and even though I only saw the back of him there was no mistaking that I recognized him. I've seen him a few hours earlier - on my _TV screen_.  
I knew this was my only chance of an awesome adventure outside my boring average life and quickly decided upon my next move – yelling at the top of my lungs.

"Sam! Sam!"  
But he didn't hear me. I kept on running and shouting out his name.  
"Sam!"  
Damn it, still nothing. I wasn't going to give up that easily.  
"Sam! Sam Witwicky! Hey, _Witwicky!_" I practically had no air left in my lungs after shouting this loud but nevertheless it yielded the result I was hoping for. Sam stopped running and turned around.  
I kept running towards him and when we were finally face-to-face, he asked, "Who are you?"  
I was about to answer (although I wasn't exactly sure how) but then I heard a deep voice coming from above.  
"Sam, we haven't got time for this, we must keep moving."  
I immediately recognized the voice before I even looked up. Optimus Prime.  
Sam looked as if he was torn between following Optimus and finding out how I knew his name. He was bound to get suspicious of people he didn't know after the whole ordeal the government had put him through.  
"Just a second Optimus, I want to know how she knows my name," he said, still facing me, "Well?"  
"I'll tell you what, I promise to tell you everything if you let me come with you. Deal?"  
Thank goodness my brain works best under pressure.  
He turned around and looked up at Optimus.  
"Optimus?" he asked  
"Bring her along if you must, but we _have_ to keep going," he replied urgently. I took that as a yes.  
"You better give me some answers and you better give them soon," he told me, pointing his finger at me. I simply nodded.  
"Autobots, rollout!"  
I suddenly realized I was so preoccupied with making sure I get to tag along I only now noticed the rest of the Autobots. I was simply transfixed by the way and speed in which they transformed.

First, there was Optimus, who transformed into a huge red and blue Semi-Trailer. He was almost too big to be allowed.  
Then there were Ironhide and Ratchet, who transformed into a black GMC Topkick and a green and grey search and rescue Hummer H2. I wasn't too big on cars, but those particular ones were hard to mistake for anything else.  
And then I saw him. The smallest of all, yellow and black with bright blue optics for eyes. Bumblebee. He transformed into a beautiful Fifth Generation Chevrolet Camaro and opened the front doors for us. He was absolutely gorgeous.  
_"Message from Starfleet, Captain... Let's get to it!"_ he said through his radio. I think that was when I had my happy moment. Sam got in the driver's seat and I in the passenger's. As soon as the doors closed, Bumblebee started driving, and boy, he was fast. I put the seatbelt on just to be on the safe side.  
The seat was almost too comfortable. It felt as if it was carved to fit my body. I ran my hand down the right side of my seat.  
"Hmm, Bumblebee…" I sighed happily. I just couldn't keep quiet when I was happy. I swear it wasn't as weird as much as it sounded.  
Suddenly, the radio turned on:

"_Da-da-da-dum da-dum da-dum da da da-da dum_

_Beautiful stranger_"

I smirked at Bumblebee's choice of a song. This dream was better than expected.  
"Do you guys know each other?" asked Sam, which reminded me that I wasn't alone in the car. He pointed at the car's dashboard then at me. He seemed to be slightly confused, and I didn't blame him – as far as I knew, none of the Autobots was on speaking terms with any civilians other than Sam and his family.  
"I don't think he knows me," I replied, which was the truth. I promised to tell him everything and I was going to stick to it.  
"What's your name?" he asked.  
"Amy Grosvendor." God, I hated my last name. He chuckled.  
"What kind of name is Grosvendor?"  
"What kind of name is Witwicky?" I asked rather acidly. He sighed.  
"Sorry, I'm not very stranger-friendly these days."  
"I can tell."  
After a silent second or two, he finally decided to ask me, "So how do you know me and Bee?"  
I took a deep breath. I hoped whatever I say wouldn't make me come across as a crazy (and possibly) demented person.  
"You're not real," I started with a simple statement but as seeing the look on his face, which suggested he probably already thought I was crazy, I added, "We're in my dream right now. I'm dreaming all this. I fell asleep watching the Transformers movie and I'm still sleeping." Apparently, this did not make any sense to him.  
"Transformers movie?" at this point his jaw dropped slightly.  
"Yes, a movie. This is a fictional world. There are no Autobots or Decepticons in reality. This whole franchise was made up. This entire universe will cease to exist when I wake up." I answered, positively confident of this declaration.  
He was still staring at me in disbelief.  
"What makes you say that?" he finally spoke.  
"I'm pretty sure I'm having my first lucid dream Right now. This whole thing –" I stopped in mid-sentence as Bee's door opened and we were thrown out of it. Within seconds, he transformed and charged at someone or something I could only see from the corner of my eye.

"What was that all about?" I yelled, confused.  
"We found a Decepticon, we were tracking him down before you ran into us," he said, breathless.  
"So what are you doing here? I thought they liked handling it all by themselves so they wouldn't put anyone's life in danger," I asked curiously.  
"It's part of plan B," he stated.  
"Plan B?"  
"Yeah, in case…in case something goes wrong. I'm – I'm the bait." He replied.  
"Let me guess, it was your idea?" I chuckled. Typical Sam.  
"They don't like it much but I don't care," he shrugged, "I wanna help."  
I looked up as I heard clashes of metal. The ground was shaking and sparks were flying everywhere as the four Autobots were pretty much giving the Decepticon what he deserved – some serious ass kicking.  
The battle was short, which wasn't surprising considering it was a four on one fight. I was simply rooted to the spot with amazement as I was watching their enormous dark silhouettes ripping apart what looked like the hands, legs and finally head of the Decepticon. It was over.  
The Autobots turned back and approached us.  
"Did you get your answers, Sam?" came the deep voice of Optimus from above.  
"No, not really," he stared at me. By now, he was probably sure that I was one hundred percent mentally impaired.  
"Want me to squeeze them out of her?" asked Ironhide in what sounded a little too trigger-happy. He transformed his right hand into a plasma rocket launcher and aimed it at me. This was not my idea of a good dream. I had to intervene if I was to regain control over it.  
"Now you wait a second!" I yelled. I wasn't sure if they would hear me from up there if I didn't.  
"This is _my_ dream! You can't just threaten me like that! You're in _my_ dream and these are _my_ rules! We're supposed to be doing something extremely cool right now instead of arguing! I'm wasting time here! I can wake up any second now!" I paused, drawing more air to my lungs, "Don't you go aiming that thing at me!"  
"What is the meaning of this, Sam?" asked Optimus.  
"I – I don't know. I think she actually believes she's dreaming. She thinks that none of us exists and we belong in some fictional world. She even said we come from a movie!" he paused, and then added quietly, "Maybe she ran away from a psychiatric hospital?"  
He was starting to get on my nerves.

"I am _not_ crazy! I am _dreaming!_" I was now shouting at Sam.  
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, will you?" he raised his hands with both palms facing me in an attempt to make me see reason, "There's a way to check if you're right."  
"Which is?" I asked testily.  
"Ouch!" He pinched my arm!  
"What'd you do that for?" I yelled.  
"If it hurt it means you're not dreaming," he replied with a victorious smile. I was getting frustrated.  
"I am not having a _normal_ dream!" I exclaimed.  
"Oh yeah, the lucid part. There's a way to check that too," he said.  
"How?"  
"Try flying."  
"What?" now it was my turn to consider the possibility he was insane.  
"Yeah, when you're having a lucid dream you can think about flying and then it sort of happens," he explained. Trust Sam to have an explanation for everything at the ready.  
"How do you know that?" I asked, although something about what he just told me was a bit familiar. I might've read about that before.  
"The internet."  
"Oh."  
It was worth a try I guess, and besides, being able to fly sounded like a really cool idea.  
I concentrated on a random spot on Sam's shirt and willed myself to fly. I waited.  
Nothing happened.  
_'Focus!'_ I thought to myself. I closed my eyes shut and tried to concentrate harder. But nothing happened. I opened my eyes.  
"See? If you can't fly it means you're definitely not dreaming," proclaimed Sam.  
Oh no. _No, no, no._ There _had_ to be an explanation to this. I can't be crazy. It didn't make sense.  
What if I wasn't dreaming? Was this some sort of joke?  
"A joke…" I said softly to myself. Sam and the Autobots simply stared at me.  
I thought I finally realized what was going on here. This was a prank, a very expensive one. And the only person I knew who had that kind of money to pull it off was -

"Charlie Sheen!" I exclaimed. I felt as if a light bulb was suddenly turned on above my head.  
"The female's random use of words suggest she might be mentally unstable," commented Ratchet as a matter-of-factly.  
"I am not mentally unstable!" I yelled at him, "Charlie Sheen put you up to this, didn't he?" I pointed accusingly at Sam, who by now I realized wasn't Sam. It was Shia LaBeouf.  
"What?" he looked completely clueless.  
"Oh, don't tell me you don't know Charlie Sheen," I replied sarcastically.  
"I don't think there's a single person on Earth who doesn't know him. Dude's friggin famous, but what does he have to do with anything?" Boy, he was good. What else could I expect from an actor?  
"About a month ago he tweeted something about pranks. I follow him on Twitter," I explained, "Anyway, I told him there was no way in hell he could pull a prank on me. Guess I was wrong," I paused, "You can stop pretending your name is Sam now; I know you're Shia LaBeouf. And that -" I pointed at the Autobots, "was a very expensive prank. You got me. How did you manage to get them moving like that? And where is he?" I asked.  
"Who?" he looked at me in amazement.  
"Charlie Sheen!" this was _so_ exasperating!  
"I don't know Charlie sheen! I don't know what you're talking about! _YOU'RE CRAZY!"_ he practically screamed at me.  
"Then how do you explain this? I was watching a movie about you, about a fictional universe that doesn't exist! I fell asleep, woke up and I'm here! How is that possible? And don't tell me this is a parallel universe and I somehow stepped into some sort of portal out of a crappy sci-fi book plot because such things don't exist!" I was talking so fast I was gasping for air.  
This was getting ridiculous.  
"Optimus, if the girl is right about the portal then we must make sure the Decepticons don't get their hands on it," said Ratchet, looking at his leader.  
"There is no portal! I just made the damned thing up!" but Ratchet ignored me.

Optimus bent down so his face was the same level with my own. His face was so close I could see every single piece of metal in it. Funny, he wasn't human, yet his face conveyed so much more than a human's ever could. In front of me was a face so beautiful and complex: the optics were a bright, electrifying blue, full of energy and life. The etches between the metal pieces replaced what would be age lines on a human skin, which made him look older and wiser than the other Autobots. It was evident it has seen many battles, probably more than the others have. There was a sense of power and greatness radiating from him. Every doubt I had, every fear, was gone. It was impossible not to trust Optimus with my life.  
"What is your name, child?" he asked.  
"A-Amy," I suddenly felt very small and insignificant compared to him.  
"Amy, the portal you described is not a figment of your imagination. What you call a portal, we call The Gateway, an ancient legend passed on from generation to generation, from one Prime to another. It told of a gateway made of unknown energy, which can bring different worlds together, binding them. It was thought to have been made by the same creator of the All Spark, yet it has never been found. The Gateway can only be opened with the Key. According to legend, the Key was split in two by its creator: one piece in your universe," he pointed his metal finger at me, "the other – in ours. It was done to prevent our race from misusing it."  
"For thousands of years, Cybertronian scientists and explorers have tried looking for it and eventually it was deemed a lost legend. If the Gateway is indeed on Earth, we must make sure it will never fall into Decepticon hands," he explained.  
"If it does, they will use the Gateway to bring the parallel Cybertron into this dimensions and for all we know, _that_ Cybertron hasn't suffered the same fate of war. The two dimensions will be damaged beyond repair," added Ratchet.  
I think that was the moment I finally accepted the fact I wasn't dreaming. Everything around me was real: Sam, the Autobots, the Gateway... Only one question remained – how exactly were we going to find something that many Autobots haven't managed to find, if we don't even know what it looks like?  
"So how do we find it?" asked Sam.  
"Amy, you said you woke up in your apartment. Can you take us there?" asked Optimus.  
"Yeah, sure," I replied timidly.  
And once again I found myself sitting inside the Camaro.


	2. Chapter 2: Nonexistant

**A/N** – Thanks to the review from Makkenna Witwicky! It's keeping me publishing these chappies instead of keeping them to myself :)

Thanks for reading chapter one! This one's a tiny bit shorter than the rest of them but as they say, it's the quality that counts, not the quantity :)

I edited loads of stuff before this final version, so if there are any weird stuff/plot holes/grammar and spelling mistakes please let me know!

As before, viewed best at 1/2 page width!

**Disclaimer**: anything you recognise is mine. Anything you don't belongs to me. If I owned the Autobots I'd be far, far away, hugging Bumblebee, Having long conversations into the night with Optimus and kick some Decepticon butt with Ironhide :)

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**Chapter 2 - Nonexistant**

Sam and I stepped out of the car. I looked up at the building where my apartment was.  
"Amy, look for anything out of the ordinary. We must find the Gateway before it closes. If it does, it will be near impossible to find," said Optimus, already in his robot form. I nodded.  
"I can help if you like, to speed things up," offered Sam.  
"That's probably a good idea."  
As we reached the last flight of stairs to the apartment, I started fiddling with the inside of my bag. I found the key and inserted it into the lock. It didn't fit.  
"This isn't right," I said mostly to myself, squinting at the lock.  
I tried again, more aggressively this time. It didn't help.  
I sighed.  
"Now what do we do?" I asked, not really expecting an answer. Sam looked slightly awkward.  
"What if you don't exist?" He asked, and I had no idea what he was talking about.  
"Huh?"  
"I mean, think about it. You come from a parallel universe, what if in this universe you've never been born? What if someone else lives here?" he pointed at the locked door.  
That option hasn't even crossed my mind. What if he was right?

"You wanna tell me I don't exist at all?" This was getting a little too much to handle.  
"I don't know, I could be wrong. I mean, what if you _do_ exist and you live somewhere else?"  
"Now you're telling me I might have some sort of a parallel _twin_? Great." Sarcasm got the best of me.  
"I don't know, anything's possible now," He said, and immediately a look of comprehension dawned on his face and he added, "Hang on, let me make a call. I think there's a way to figure this out."  
He quickly took a cell phone out of his pocket and dialed a number. He didn't wait long for the other end to pick up.  
"Hello, this is Sam Witwicky. Can I speak to Major Lennox?"  
There was a long pause.  
Holy hell. Lennox. On speed dial. Impressive.  
"Lennox? It's Sam. Yeah… Listen, I need to look up someone up for me. What? No, it's important. I'll explain everything later. Okay, you're writing it down? It's Amy Grosvendor. No, it's G-R – yeah, N-D-O-R."  
Another pause.  
We waited.  
"Sure, no problem," he spoke into the phone again, "Nothing? You sure? No, I'm here with the Autobots. Yeah, they'll be there for debriefing. Okay, thanks."  
He put the phone back into his pocket and looked at me with pity.  
"Looks like you don't exist."  
The sound of his announcement was strange to me, even a little depressing. After all, who would want to hear that they don't exist? On the other hand, I'm not sure how I would've reacted if I found out I had an evil twin…  
"Yeah, that's great… Just – oh, whatever. Let's go back downstairs, we have more important things to do." This whole situation felt a little too strange for comfort, but I had to pull myself together and focus. We had a job to do.  
"Listen," he approached me, "we'll figure it out. We'll find a way to get you back home," he tried to comfort me. He seemed to have mistaken my confusion for a desire to go home.

_As if I had anything to come back to_.

"What makes you think I wanna go back?"  
"You don't?" he asked, "Why?"  
"You're kidding, right? Sam, my life is _boring._ I have a boring job, I live in a tiny boring apartment and it doesn't look like things are gonna change anytime soon. I know you wanna have a normal life but I wanna be anything but ordinary! I'm sick of being average and now that I have the chance to change that I'm not gonna throw it away!"  
As I spoke these words, the strange feeling I had simply disappeared and I realized - it didn't matter where I go, as long as I'm with the Autobots. With Bumblebee. Things were starting to make a little more sense now and I started to think like my rational self again.  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to take it out on you," I apologized.  
"It's okay, I know how it feels," he smiled at me, "Sometimes things can get a little bit overwhelming," he said, and I knew he understood how I felt.  
"So how do you know so much about me?"  
"Where I come from, you're a character in a movie, remember? I know a lot about all of you," I answered as I started going down the stairs.  
He followed.  
My spirits were high. True, we didn't find the Gateway, but it was only a matter of time.  
As we walked outside the building the Autobots were waiting for us and seeing as we came back empty handed, they didn't look surprised.  
"What happened?" asked Optimus.  
I looked up and opened my mouth to explain but Sam was quicker than I was. I guess my reflexes were slow tonight.  
"We couldn't get in. She doesn't exist in our universe so the apartment isn't hers," he said.  
"We don't sense Energon nearby. The Gateway must have been sealed. Amy," he looked at me, "it can only be opened with the Key or part of it. It must have been in your possession at the time it was activated. Can you think of any strange object you had?" he asked.  
"No, I don't think so," I replied, and then quickly added, "Hold on a second…"  
I fiddled with the inside of my bag again, until my hand closed on a necklace I bought in what now seemed like ages ago.  
Seriously, what were the odds?  
I held it by the thin chain high above my head for the Autobots to see.

_The little Decepticon stood across the street. Hidden behind a tree, he was watching the Autobots and their human pets. A look of disgust appeared on his face at the thought of humans but it quickly vanished. He was very happy about something. His optics have located a small object dangling from a delicate chain which was being held by the human female. He had no idea what it was, but he was certain his master would be very interested in it. He kept watching them closely. Megatron would be pleased.  
__Thousands of miles above them, a top-of-the-line secret military satellite was in synchronous orbit of Earth. There was something, or rather someone, attached to it. He was processing a new stream of data he just received. It consisted of some interesting information of great value to his master. He responded with two simple words:_

"Soundwave acknowledges."

Optimus took the necklace with a delicacy of a surgeon's hands and placed it carefully in his hand to give it a closer look. His metal fingers briefly touched mine and I was half expecting them to be cold. Instead, I was surprised to find comfortably warm. I wondered if this was what Bumblebee felt like and glanced at him. I was surprised to see him looking back at me and quickly looked away.  
The pendant was shaped like an empty square pyramid: each face was made of thin, silvery lines of metal (which gave the impression of being fragile when in fact they were very much strong), and a solid base which was roughly cut and somewhat uneven with strange glyphs engraved into it. I assumed the jeweler did a poor job, but now I realized there was a piece missing and the glyphs were, in fact, ancient Cybertronian.  
"How did you get it?" asked Optimus.  
"eBay," I shrugged, "What's written on the base?"  
He looked closely at the base of the pendant and read, "_When the Sun stands above its peak, there lies perfection_."  
A riddle. Great."What does it mean?" asked Sam.  
"It's a riddle, just like the one that led you to the Matrix of Leadership," I replied.  
"How do you know about that?" asked Ironhide.  
"I watched it happen, remember?"  
"This is so strange," commented Sam.  
"Sam, we need to head back to base. We will need your military's help to find the other piece of the Key," said Optimus.  
"Yeah, okay," Sam was obviously disappointed, "I need to go back to college anyway. I'll get my ass kicked if I don't finish that paper by tomorrow. Let me know if you find anything major because you're not leaving without me!" he replied.  
Optimus gave me back the necklace.  
"Amy, you must keep the Key safe at any cost! We have to find the other half and destroy them both. It's too dangerous to be kept whole," he paused, and gave me back the necklace. I put it around my neck and placed the pendant under my shirt.  
"Bumblebee, we need to keep the girl safe, she will need every form of protection we can provide."  
"Aye aye, captain!" I heard Bumblebee's voice for the first time. I wasn't sure why he was still using the radio if he could speak, but I guess it hasn't been fully repaired yet, and besides, how else would he make all those funny remarks? I liked him just as he was.  
Ratchet sniffed the air, narrowing his optics. Something wasn't right.

_The hidden Decepticon across the narrow street has reported everything to his master and was attempting to escape unnoticed. However, his plan did not work._

"I smell the stench of a Decepticon!" exclaimed Ratchet.  
"There he is!" pointed Ironhide to a point across the street. He immediately transformed his hand into an energy rocket launcher and took a shot at what seemed like a small Decepticon.  
I was completely unprepared for the force of the explosion. It was so bright I had to close my eyes shut and shield them with my hands in fear I would be hit by the flying debris and the heat. I felt as if the sound of the explosion was ripping my eardrums apart. Suddenly, everything went quiet.  
I dared open my eyes.  
The scene in front of me was completely chaotic: half the sidewalk was blasted into pieces and where a tall tree once stood, was a burnt trunk less than half its previous height. There were scattered pieces of metal everywhere.  
"Punk ass Decepticon," said Ironhide, who transformed his weapon back into his hand and lowered it.  
After the initial shock, Sam and I ran across the street to see if there were any survivors but there was nothing left.  
"What happened?" I asked, looking at the scene of destruction all around me, then turned back and looked up at Optimus.  
He replied with only two words, but they were enough for all of us to understand:

"They know."

For the first time in my life, I was truly afraid.

"Bumblebee, get Amy back to base. We'll be right behind you," Said Optimus.  
The next chain of events happened very quickly. One moment, the Autobots were in their robot forms, shielding Sam and I from sight. In the next, we were surrounded by cars. The door to the yellow Camaro opened and I literally jumped in. Time was now a luxury we didn't have.

I could tell Bumblebee was driving as fast as he could, and the rest of the Autobots followed suit.  
The ride was quiet, except for the purring of the engine. Bumblebee seemed pleased to be doing his part.  
I wanted to talk to him, to know more about him, to tell him he was my favorite Autobot, but I couldn't find the words to say any of that. Besides, I was dirty and sweaty (and overall felt disgusting) and this certainly wasn't the right time for these kinds of things. So I kept quiet and fidgeted with my dark blue painted nails. I only painted them two days ago but everything normal and ordinary in my life seemed to have happened so long ago. I wasn't complaining though, this is what I wanted.  
The silence between us felt almost unnatural, which made me feel uncomfortable sitting in the passenger's seat. I had to strike up a conversation.  
"So what base was Optimus talking about? The one in New Jersey?" I asked. I wasn't sure which answer to expect.  
"_We have a winner!"_ came an excited man's voice from the radio. I wasn't in the mood to laugh but I did so despite of myself.  
"Do you think the military can help us find the other piece? I mean, this is Megatron we're talking about here, he'll stop at nothing to get it," I voiced my concerns. A slight shiver went down my spine. If Megatron finds the missing piece before we do, he will probably go after me next.

"_Gold (gold)  
__Always believe in your soul  
__You've got the power to know  
__You're indestructible  
__Always believe in…"_ came the familiar song of Spandau Ballet from the radio. I smiled.  
Talking to Bumblebee was as easy as breathing.  
"Thanks for believing in us, Bee, even when sometimes we don't believe in ourselves," I was referring to myself more than everyone else.  
"_Believe you can and you're halfway there,"_ came the voice of President Roosevelt.  
"Easy for you to say, you're Autobots! You have power and weapons I could never dream of having!"  
_"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,"_ I heard the voice of Neil Armstrong and I realized he was trying to remind me that we too are capable of doing great things if we put our mind to it. I was grateful for that.  
"I guess you're right, Bee. I've been through more than what I call an average night, and I'm not thinking straight," I replied.

"_In the jungle, the mighty jungle  
__The lion sleeps tonight  
__In the jungle, the quiet jungle  
__The lion sleeps tonight..."  
_That was probably one of the funniest songs I've ever heard.  
"You're probably right, I need to get some sleep," I said as I took a small hair rubber band out of my bag, pulled my hair back and tied half of it back, letting the rest fall down past my shoulders. Lucky I was a typical girl who keeps that kind of stuff in her bag.  
This was much more comfortable to me. I didn't need to constantly push my hair away from my face anymore.  
I rested my head against the window and closed my eyes. I felt the seat belt being pulled over me and heard it click.  
It was almost like falling asleep in his arms.


End file.
